FOCUS on the Narcotics Trade: Ecuador

Ecuador has long been situated between juxtaposed worlds. It is a product of Spanish and Native American cultures, a gateway between the northern and southern hemispheres, and between the two largest cocaine producers in the world. Though Ecuador does not produce cocaine, its location made it a drug corridor for Peru and Colombia.

According to a 2015 United Nations International Narcotics Control Board report, cocaine seizures in Ecuador rose by over 252 percent from 2010 to 2015. Additionally, former Director of Military Intelligence Mario Pazmiño said that maritime trafficking routes increased by 90 percent from 2005 to 2012, according to La Hora.

The U.S. and Central America are common destinations for cocaine trafficked through Ecuador. In early February of 2016, the Ministry of Interior reported the seizure of an Ecuadorian vessel carrying nearly 1,800 pound of cocaine destined for Florida. In the same month, Ecuador’s antinarcotics division seized over 1,400 pounds of cocaine off the coast of Santa Elena that were headed for Central America.

Cocaine is smuggled into Ecuador where it is shipped out of Guayaquil, the country’s largest port city, and sold abroad.

Ecuador is especially important to drug cartels because it uses the American dollar. This allows drug money that has been trafficked into the region to be laundered into the world’s most useful currency very easily. When individuals in the U.S., El Salvador, or Panama purchase cocaine, the dollars they use for payment do not need to be converted to another currency, and lose no value.

The Ecuadorian government has launched a series of crackdowns on drug runners following this increase in sales. In an attempt to treat the problem’s source, President Rafael Correa deployed 10,000 troops to the Colombian border to police the area and combat foreign narcotics groups, said Insight Crime.

Despite this initiative, Ecuador has recently denied accusations that its public institutions exacerbate the problem. In its 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the U.S. State Department suggested that “weak public institutions, permeable borders, and corruption,” make Ecuador vulnerable to transnational organized crime.

The Ecuadorian Ministry of Internal Affairs rejected the “whimsical” report, and Regional Police Chief Eduardo Mancayo said that domestic investigations showed no such links, reports El Comercio. Whether or not domestic police reports conflict with U.S. findings, the disagreement and rhetoric with which they were published highlights the increased strain in diplomatic tension between the two countries.

Felipe Bueno

FELIPE BUENO is a junior pursuing a degree in Diplomacy and International Relations. Born in Quito, Ecuador, he is bilingual in Spanish and English, and currently studying French. Born into a diplomatic family, he grew up living in a world of globalization, a world he one day hopes to better.
Contact Felipe at felipe.bueno@student.shu.edu.